This Saturday, February 27th World Welterweight Champion Cecilia Braekhus (27-0) faces the challenge of Uruguay’s Chris Namus (21-3) at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany. Cecilia Braekhus vs Chris Namus marks the first time in 15 months that Braekhus, who is nicknamed “The First Lady”, has fought.
This Friday afternoon, both ladies came in under the 147 lb welterweight limit to make their match official. Braekhus will be defending her WBC,WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO world titles. The fight is set to air on RTL in Germany, and television stations in Namus’ native Uruguay are carrying the fight as well.
Check out a quick video clip of the weigh-ins from our friends at The Boxing Channel.
For Braekhus, the layoff has seen her change management, as she is now represented by Vitali Klitschko and the K2 group in Germany. She was scheduled to fight back in November as a co-feature fight on the card headlined by Tyson Fury versus Wladimir Klitschko but that fight was postponed. This fight, in support of a main event for the Cruiserweight title between Marco Huck and Ola Afolabi is not as big a stage as the November fight wouldhave been, but this is by far the biggest fight Braekhus has had in her long and decorated career.
In Namus, Braekhus has a seasoned opponent who has been fighting in South America’s boxing scene, where women’s boxing is quite extensive. She has fough tin Uruguay and in the latin nexus of Argentina, and she is a former world champion in the Lightweight division. She is moving up two weight classes however, and for all her experience, this will be her first time fighting in Europe.
The sport books are not giving Namus much of a chance, as Braekhus is a -8500 favorite to win, with Namus paying back at +3500. For those not in the “know” this means that to win $100 you need to bet $8500 on Braekhus, with a $100 bet on Namus winning you $3500 if she pulls off the upset.
Women’s boxing has been getting a lot more attention over the last few years while Braekhus has generally been considered the number one pound for pound woman boxer in the world.It will be interesting to see if Braekhus shows the effects of her layoff, and it bears pointing out that she is now 34 years old. If she is gonig to be the face of wome’s boxing this year, it will all have to start with a showcase performance this Saturday for “The First lady”.